The present invention is directed to a novel integrated database data editing system, which uses the visual environment and the GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) and tools in a client computer to remotely access and directly edit and manage the relational database data contents in a server computer in an efficient and easy-to-use manner through the computer networks. Computer networks are the networking systems that link a plurality of computers with electric wires and work together through the standard network protocols. All the computers linked on the networks work together in a client/server manner. The computer servers provide application services to a plurality of computer clients, and the client computers access and utilize these services through the networks. Each computer linked on the networks has a unique network interface with a unique IP (Internet Protocol) address. Typically, a home computer is connected to the Internet or other networks through a computer modem or DSL (Digital Subscribe Line). The corporation computers are usually connected to the corporation private networks or Internet through the computer network adapters. The personal computer, laptop computer, smartphone, other portable and hand-held computer device can be connected to the WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) and Internet through the wireless gateways by using Wi-Fi (802.11 networking) or WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technologies. The intranet is the private network of a corporation or government agency including the LAN (Local Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network). The Internet is the “Inter-networks” that links all the sub-networks (intranets) together through a plurality of Internet routers and standard Internet protocols. Typically, the intranets are linked to the Internet through a firewall or a computer proxy server, which only allows a group of pre-selected Internet protocol data flows to pass through.
An intranet uses the network management software such as Microsoft Windows NT or Novell Netware to directly link the computers together, where each computer linked on the intranet has an IP address or a name unique for the network. The client computers communicate with the server computers through the standard network protocols. The TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic and most popular network protocol for the intranet and also for all the other computer networks. The TCP/IP is a “connection-oriented” network protocol. When a client computer requests a service from a server computer or the server computer replies to the client computer, the TCP first establishes a connection between the client and the server, and then the IP transfers the datagrams between the client and the server. When the data transmission is finished, the TCP terminates the connection. The TCP/IP connects and transfers datagrams between the client computer and the server computer based on the IP addresses of the client and server computers that are unique for the network. The computer IP addresses are managed by the computer network management software.
Internet links all the private networks together through the computer network routers and firewalls, and provide us such an efficient way to communicate with our neighbors, our corporation branch offices or the people living on another continent anytime and anywhere. An Internet router maintains a dynamic routing table that contains the globally registered IP addresses of all the computer nodes linked on the Internet, and forwards the IP datagrams based on the source host and destination host computer IP addresses carried on these datagrams. The client computers and server computers linked on Internet communicate with each other through the standard TCP/IP based Internet protocols such as HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), EDI (Electric Data Interchanger) or other RPC (Remote Procedure Call) based Internet protocols. Each computer node linked on the Internet, including the client computer, server computer and router, has at least one globally registered IP address or URL (Universal Resource Locator). The computers find and communicate with each other based on these unique IP addresses or URLs. The HTTP is an Internet application protocol built on the above of TCP/IP for the communication between a client computer browser and an HTTP server (or web server) installed in a server computer in a request/response two-way communication manner. The client browser sends out the requests through Internet to the server computer HTTP server, and the HTTP server replies to the client browser through the CGI (Common Gateway Interface). The CGI is the standard interface of an HTTP server for the request/response communication between the browser and the HTTP server. The WWW (World Wide Web) web pages are the most popular computer software applications used for communications between a client computer browser and a web server of a computer server through Internet and also intranet. A numerous web sites have been built based on the web pages and the HTTP. The FTP comprises a FTP server that is hosted in a server computer and a FTP client that is hosted in a client computer. The FTP server is used to store data files where the FTP clients can upload or download the data files through the intranet or Internet. The SMTP is a message-based Internet protocol that is used to transfer e-mails between the computer e-mail servers. The EDI is also a message-based protocol to transfer data files between the EDI client computer and the server computer. The RPC is used to implement the communication applications in a caller/listener manner between any client computers and server computers coupled on the intranet or Internet.
Computer relational database is the central data repository place for most software applications, and is widely used in most client/server enterprise software applications and web applications. Typically, a relational database application is installed in a computer server and is accessed and used by a plurality of computer clients coupled on the networks. The client/server enterprise database application is typically in the “two-tier” software architecture and is used inside the private corporation intranet, where the client computer communicates with the server computer that contains the database through a numerous client/server socket links. The web database application is typically in the “three-tier” software architecture and is used for Internet application, where the client browser communicates with the web server and application server through HTTP, and the web server and application serve communicates with the database. The client/server software applications can only run inside the intranet but not the Internet because the intranet is protected by the firewall and the numerous socket links between the client computer and the server computer cannot pass through the firewall. Further more, the IP addresses of the client and server computers need to be globally registered for the Internet database applications.
In a database software application, a database is called the “back-end” that works independently and uses the standard SQL (Structured Query Language) to communicate with the software logic “middle-ware” and the presentation “front-end” through the DBMS (DataBase Management System). A relational database stores data temperately or permanently and in most cases the database data needs to be dynamically input, output, modified or updated frequently and timely. The data stored in all the relational databases are simple text data or binary data types that are universal for all the computer platforms and the relational databases. In most business applications, especially the Internet e-commerce applications such as product catalogue or product advertisement, the data stored in the database is not only the small text or character data, but also more likely the large text or binary data types, such as large text file, voice, audio, music, image, picture, animation, video or compiled software program. One of the best practices for database software applications is to separate the data content from the data presentation, where the data content is stored in the relational database and then retrieved by the “middle-ware” and passed to the Windows Graphic User Interface (GUI) or web page for display.
All the commercial relational databases support the small text data type. Some major commercial relational databases, such as Oracle database and IBM DB2, also support the Large Object (LOB) data types including the Character Large Object (CLOB) and the Binary Large Object (BLOB). The CLOB data type supports text (ASCII, 8-bit) or character (16-bit) data, and the BLOB data type supports multimedia data such as audio, image, animation, video, compiled software program, etc. Further more, the Oracle database also supports LONG, LONG RAW, NCLOB and BFILE data types. The LONG stands for text or character data. The LONG RAW stands for long binary data. The NCLOB is for multi-byte character set. The BFILE stands for Binary File that is stored outside the database but coupled with a file path stored inside the database. The DB2 supports DBCLOB data type, which stands for Double-Byte Character Large Object. All of the LOB data types can store the data size up to 2 Gigabytes or 4 Gigabytes, and the data is stored either inside the database or outside the database as “out-of-line” data. The DataBase Management System (DBMS) of a relational database uses a Locator that is stored inside the database to refer or point to the actual data when the data is stored either as a separate data set or outside the database. The LOB data values are manipulated and processed by the DBMS using the built-in specific functions and procedures, which is very difficult to use and to handle these large data types even for the computer software professionals.
Most relational database vendors sell their databases independently. Some of them sell the databases with a simple tool or employ the third party products to manage their databases. These client side tools provide the GUIs to write the individual SQL or SQL*Plus codes to access and manage the databases inside the intranet. None of them can work on the Internet because the client and server computers need to use the HTTP to communicate each other for Internet applications. There are also some commercial database reports software products available on the market, which can access and read the database data through intranet or Internet, but all of these database reports products are the “read only” software. None of them can update, modify or input, output the data for the database. As will be described, the present invention provides an integrated database data editing system that is used to remotely access the relational database to manage the database and to modify, update, input or output the database data contents including the large data types through either the wired or wireless intranet or the Internet.